NAME
CGI::Thin - A very lightweight Parser for CGI Forms
SYNOPSIS
`use CGI::Thin;'
`my %cgi_data = &Parse_CGI ();'
DESCRIPTION
This module is a very lightweight parser of CGI forms. And it
has a special feature that it will return an array if the same
key is used twice in the form. You can force an array even if
only one value returned to avoid complications.
The hash %cgi_data will have all the form data from either a
POST or GET form and will also work for "multipart/form-data"
forms necessary for uploading files.
USAGE
Functions
* `CGI::Thin::Parse_CGI(@keys)'
The optional @keys will be used to force arrays to be returned.
The function also has special features for getting multiple values for a
single form key. For example if we have this form...
red
green
blue
One of three things can happen.
1) The user does not select any color.
So $cgi_data{'color'} will not exist.
2) The user selects exactly one color.
So $cgi_data{'color'} will be the scalar value selected.
3) The user selects exactly more than one color.
So $cgi_data{'color'} will be a reference to an array of the values selected.
To fix this you could call the parser by giving it a list of keys that you want
to force to be arrays. In this case like...
use CGI::Thin;
my %cgi_data = &Parse_CGI ('color');
Now it they pick exactly one color, $cgi_data{'color'} will be a reference to
an array of the one value selected. And thus there will be no need for
special cases later in the code.
BUGS
Fixed
* Added %([0-9a-fA-F]{2} to the regular expression to avoid
illegal escapes
* Now split the key/value pairs by [;&] not just the ampersand
Pending
* Long headers lines that have been broken over multiple lines in
multipart/form-data don't seem to be handled.
* Large file uploads (like 150MB) will clobber main memory. One
possible addition is to change how multipart/form-data is
read and to spit files directly to the temp directory and
return to the script a filename so it can be retreived from
there.
* Any thoughts on adapting it for use withing a mod_perl
environment?
Under Apache::Registry, which emulates a CGI environmnet, it
should be. Under plain ol' mod_perl, we need to interact
with the Apache::Request class a bit instead of %ENV and
STDIN.
This feature may be added in the next incarnation of the
module, or possibly a companion CGI::Thin::Mod_Perlish may
be created to do it if the code will be too different.
SEE ALSO
CGI::Thin::Cookies
SUPPORT
Visit CGI::Thin's web site at
http://www.PlatypiVentures.com/perl/modules/cgi_thin.shtml
Send email to
mailto:cgi_thin@PlatypiVentures.com
AUTHOR
R. Geoffrey Avery
CPAN ID: RGEOFFREY
rGeoffrey@PlatypiVentures.com
http://www.PlatypiVentures.com/perl
COPYRIGHT
This module is free software, you may redistribute it or modify
in under the same terms as Perl itself.